I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Ravi Belani, CEO and Founder of @AlchemistAcc to discuss how Agentic AI should actually be priced — and where founders are getting it wrong. Ravi has a sharp lens on enterprise AI, and as always, the conversation was grounded in first principles
Most teams are still trying to price agents like SaaS. That doesn’t work. Agentic systems don’t behave like seats or simple API calls. They generate variable compute loads, multi-step reasoning chains, orchestration overhead, governance layers, and human-in-the-loop review. The cost structure is nonlinear — and often opaque
A few observations from the investing side:
• Seat-based pricing breaks quickly due to unpredictability in token usage and consumption
• Pure token pricing makes TCO unpredictable which stalls enterprise adoption.
• The winners will price against business value — cost saved, revenue generated, cycle time reduced, risk mitigated.
If your agent eliminates $5M of operational expense, price it against that.
If it materially improves ticket resolution, fraud precision or underwriting velocity, price it against margin expansion.
That’s how enterprise buyers think.
https://t.co/TB5gDnTXTp
Announcing the startups selected for Phase 2 of Alchemist Chicago, advancing into Alchemist’s flagship accelerator as part of Class 41.
Selected from nearly 400 applicants, these teams are building across quantum, AI, energy and biotech.
See cohort here: https://t.co/aCh7rC7zkc
Big news for @Onebriefapp (Alchemist Class 23). $200M Series D at a $2.15B post money valuation and the acquisition of Battle Road Digital. An exciting step forward for AI powered command and decision making.
Read more: https://t.co/pk6kkl6hjt
@AlchemistAcc applications close soon!
Early-stage B2B & B2B2C startups w/ distinctive technical teams: join our global accelerator for support from the highest caliber mentors & network. Apply now for our 6-month program starting in January 2026! #accelerator#fundraising
📢 Join us Aug 19, 2 PM PT for an info session on Alchemist Chicago, a deep tech launchpad by Alchemist Accelerator & UChicago’s @polskycenter.
For pre-seed/seed startups in AI, quantum, cleantech, robotics & more.
Open globally. Register now: https://t.co/C7VKEp7gE2
Thrilled to share that @glassgovtech (Alchemist Class 23) has launched the City of Santa Monica's new E-Commerce platform, transforming government procurement with automated workflows, real-time analytics, and seamless vendor integration.
Read more: https://t.co/vx231imLyc
Big win for Alchemist alum Moesif!
The API analytics startup from Class 15 has been acquired by @wso2 to boost their API management capabilities.
Congrats to the @MoesifHQ team on this milestone!
🔗 Read more: https://t.co/qBB70edljO
@AlchemistAcc applications close soon!
Early-stage B2B & B2B2C startups w/ distinctive technical teams: join our global accelerator for support from the highest caliber mentors & network. Apply now for our 6month program starting in Sept 2025! #accelerator#fundraising#startups
@AlchemistAcc applications close soon!
Early-stage B2B & B2B2C startups w/ distinctive technical teams: join our global accelerator for support from the highest caliber mentors & network. Apply now for our 6-month program starting in April 2025 #accelerator#fundraising